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Touchscreen Mac, Meet iOS Mouse

Microsoft has something with Windows 10 that I want Apple to implement on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Touchscreen for a Mac, and mouse controls for iOS on iPhone and iPad. Wait. What?

Touchscreen on a Mac? Isn’t that sacrilege? Mouse control options for iPhone and iPad? Isn’t that blasphemy? No. Both are good ideas and both are available now on Windows 10’s standard tablet notebook hybrids. I know what you’re thinking. “If Macs are selling at record levels and Microsoft’s Surface devices are going down in sales, doesn’t that make the idea worthless?”

I see the argument and acknowledge the point, but there’s more going on here than meets the eye. The only segment of the traditional Windows personal computer business that is growing is the touchscreen devices; particularly those not sold by Microsoft. Touchscreens on PCs are here to stay. They’re not going to die on the vine. And I want a touchscreen on a Mac.

Wait. What? Doesn’t that mean macOS Bakersfield or macOS Capistrano have to get a big makeover to handle touch? No. Windows 10 was an evolutionary product which brought some touch controls and basic touch options to a Windows environment. Nobody would use touch all the time on Windows 10 but it has its place, especially with the detachable keyboard models or the large screen desktop models which designers and graphic artists love.

The Mac should have a touchscreen. MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and, of course, have it built-in to macOS for Mac mini and future Mac Pro models to work with Apple branded touchscreens.

Touchscreen PCs are here, people use them, customers like them, and now they expect it.

What about mouse support for iPhone and iPad? Why not? Many of us use Bluetooth keyboards on the iPad (less so on iPhone, of course, but using AirPlay on iPhone would make a TV a big screen, so that option could use mouse support to go with keyboard support). Apple even sells a Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro. Typing is how most of us non-designers and modest consumption creatures get work done on the iPad, so why not build in mouse pointer support to iOS?

Apple could design and build a new set of keyboard, mouse, and trackpads just for iPad. That would make iPad more productive, and with an Apple-branded display, give customers a reason to use their iPads more like a Mac, and certainly lower the barrier to entry for PC users who want to switch to the iPad.

Yes, mouse and trackpad support for iOS– iPad and iPhone– is an idea whose time has come.

One. More. Thing.

Damn, I miss that phrase from Apple product keynote presentations.

Since touchscreens quickly are becoming the norm, and since Windows 10 S is the beginner Windows and a reference Windows for low-priced touchscreen PCs, why not have a $799 MacBook Air with a touchscreen, running macOS Santa Monica on an Apple designed ARM CPU.

As with Windows 10 S which won’t run applications not available from the Windows App Store, the entry-level MacBook Air would feature limited RAM and storage, and only run applications available on the Mac App Store (and that includes not running Windows 10 or Linux which macOS Sierra can do now). Hey, while we’re at it, Apple, make the keyboard detachable, too.

These are ideas that are user centric, ideas that Apple can implement if it chooses, and like the new $329 iPad and the $399 iPhone SE, give Apple a way to make the Mac affordable and usable for the great unwashed masses of Windows PC users.